


Our Turn

by Magnonette



Series: Whumptober 2020 [16]
Category: Moominvalley (Cartoon 2019), Mumintroll | Moomins Series - Tove Jansson, 楽しいムーミン一家 | Moomin (Anime 1990)
Genre: Fever, Fever Dreams, Fluff and Angst, Hallucinations, Sick Character, Sickfic, Whump, Whumptober, Whumptober 2020, delirious, ig
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:55:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27048337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magnonette/pseuds/Magnonette
Summary: A terrible wave of sickness came across the Valley, attacking everyone, one after the other. After taking care of a sick Snufkin and Snorkmaiden, Moomin finally succumbed to the sickness. It's their turn to watch over him now.
Relationships: Mumintrollet | Moomintroll & Snusmumriken | Snufkin, S - Relationship, Snorkfröken | The Snork Maiden & Snusmumriken | Snufkin
Series: Whumptober 2020 [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948144
Kudos: 7





	Our Turn

**Author's Note:**

> A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - Forced To Beg - Hallucinations - Shoot The Hostage

There was a wave of sickness coming through the Valley. It wasn’t unusual with the season but it had taken everyone by surprise. Some cases were worse than others. The luckiest would just be bedridden for a few days and feeling horrible, just as if they’d just caught a really weird flu. For those that were less lucky though, the symptoms were worse. They could be plagued by horrible fevers and the dreams that accompanied them, and ever be delirious and have hallucinations. Thankfully not a lot of the inhabitants of the Valley had gotten the worse symptoms.

But Moomin wasn’t so lucky.

He’d caught the sickness while taking care of Snufkin and Snorkmaiden when they caught it. MoominMamma had warned him, but he’d insisted on helping and take care of them, arguing that if he didn’t he was afraid Snufkin wouldn’t stay in bed and get worse.

But, as soon as they had recovered enough to get out of bed, Moomin had fallen sick. It had struck him so badly that he soon fell into delirious mumbles.

Snufkin and Snorkmaiden insisted, despite not being fully healed yet, to take care of him in return, arguing that they already were better and that they couldn’t catch it again.  
MoominMamma agreed, although she asked them to tell her if they wanted her to take over while they rested.

“No, please, no. Don’t hurt them. Please.” Moomin begged deliriously as they changed the wet cloth on his forehead.

“What do you think he’s dreaming about?” Snorkmaiden asked Snufkin nervously. “It doesn’t sound very pleasant.”

“Fever dreams are not known to be pleasant.” Snufkin noted blankly. “From what he’s saying, I guess he’s dreaming about someone about to get hurt by someone else.” He shrugged.

“No. Please.” Moomin tossed and turned in his bed, not waking up. “Don’t touch them. Please.” 

“Shouldn’t we try to see if we can find a way to help him into better dreams?” Snorkmaiden looked at Snufkin with worry. “It seems like a really bad one. I don’t like seeing him like that.” 

“I don’t like it either.” Snufkin hummed in response. “But, I don’t believe we can do anything about it, save getting more medicine in him, but we already did that. There isn’t any cure to fever dreams that I know of.”

“Poor Moomin.” She said sadly, looking back at their sick friend. “Why did he have to catch the bad one.”

“It happens.” Snufkin sighed. “There’s nothing that could’ve changed the way he reacted to the sickness. Like Ma- MoominMamma said, different people react differently to the same sickness. It can’t be helped.”

“Oh, I hope he’ll get better soon.” Snorkmaiden whined. “I really hate to see him suffer like that.”

“Me too.” Snufkin mumbled quietly. “Me too.”

They went on to look after him, trying to busy themselves when they had to wait for him to wake up or to wait to give him another cup of medicine. Snufkin spent most of his time by the window, longing to be outside, while Snorkmaiden read books and sew next to the bed.

MoominMamma came and went as well, checking up on them now and again before going back to preparing medicine to deliver to the ones that were sick as well. She checked to make sure their own fevers weren’t coming back up, as they still had a slight fever, not strong enough to be bothersome but still there.

“Snufkin! Snorkmaiden! No! Don’t touch them!” Moomin exclaimed, half awake and looking far off into the wall passed Snorkmaiden. “Don’t touch them! Please! I’ll do anything!”

Snufkin and Snorkmaiden, startled, looked at each other with increasing worry. Whatever Moomin was dreaming of, hallucinating even, was about them being hurt? They couldn’t believe it. It made them feel so much worse to know that he was in such state because of them.

“Moomin, calm down.” Snorkmaiden said gently, approaching the bed to take Moomin’s paw in hers. “We’re here. We’re fine. It’s just a bad dream.”

Moomin continued to trash in his bed, calling out for them to stop, to not hurt the both of them. Snorkmaiden tried to reassure him, tried to sooth him, while Snufkin was still stunned by the window, looking at Moomin in shock.

Finally, after a moment, Moomin relaxed into a more quiet slumber under Snorkmaiden’s gentle, reassuring voice. She sighed in relief as he finally became quiet. She turned around to look at Snufkin. They exchanged worried looks.

At that moment, MoominMamma came in the room to give them the medicine to give to Moomin and their own. She only needed a glance at them to understand that something had happened.

“He’s having nightmare, Mamma.” Snorkmaiden explained under her questioning gaze. “Really bad ones. And it’s about us.” She turned to glance at Snufkin again.

“It sounds like someone is trying to hurt us…” Snufkin mumbled.

“He’s begging for us to be left alone and not be hurt.” She continued, worried tears slowly coming to her eyes.

“Don’t worry, dears.” MoominMamma reassured, stroking Snorkmaiden’s head fondly, giving them a reassuring smile. “It’s not very surprising, really. You are his most important person after all. And fever dreams usually play with those things. Don’t worry, he’ll be fine soon. I’m sure of it. The worse cases so far always proved to heal quicker than the other ones. He’ll be back on his feet before you know it.”

She gave Snorkmaiden her cup of medicine as she talked, before making her way to Snufkin for his own, and then to get Moomin to drink his cup. She managed to wake him up enough to make him drink without too much trouble.

“Snufkin? Can you come help me in the kitchen? I need help to clean the dishes while I make more medicine for the other. If you don’t mind that is.” She said as she turned around to look at the vagabond who nodded before following her out.

“Don’t worry too much, dear, he’ll be fine soon. I know he will.” MoominMamma reassured as he washed the dishes, sensing that he was very worried. “I know it might be a bit upsetting to hear him when he’s this delirious, but it just proves that he really cares about you both.”

“But, why?” Snufkin asked quietly. “It’s our fault if he became sick. And I always bring him troubles.”

“Now, that’s not true.” MoominMamma scolded gently. “You bring him so much more joy, much more than you seem to realize. And he would never blame you for anything, even less something like this. He was the one insisting on taking care of the both of you after all. He just didn’t want to leave you alone while you were sick. He didn’t have to, and we warned him about it, but he refused and preferred to stay by your side.”

“But if he hadn’t he wouldn’t have caught it.” Snufkin complained. “He wouldn’t be hurting like that…”

“Now, we don’t know that.” She retorted. “He might have caught it even if he hadn’t. We can’t know now but since most of the Valley caught it I’m pretty sure he would’ve caught it at some point. And he’s lucky, really.”

“How so?” Snufkin asked, confused, turning to look at her.

“Well, he had his two most important persons looking after him.” She said, smiling mischievously to him as he blushed at her words. “And don’t worry he’ll be fine soon.” She wiped her paws on her apron before walking over to Snufkin and offering him a hug, that he accepted timidly.

Just like MoominMamma had said, after one more day of delirious mumbles, Moomin finally came back to his senses, already feeling much better. It only took a few more days before they could all tell that the sickness was over.

They didn’t talk about what Moomin had said, as he didn’t remember any of it, preferring to just enjoy the fact that he was feeling better now. Moomin was still worried over them, more than they thought he should, as he was the one that had the worst of it.

All in all, they were able to go out again, to go to long walks through the forest and on the beach together.

It took only a few more days for everyone in the Valley to be healed. MoominMamma was the last one to be sick, having taken care of everyone in the Valley. Moomin, Snufkin and Snorkmaiden made sure to take good care of her, and to force her to stay in bed while they did.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed!
> 
> I tried to change by focusing on Moomin being sick instead of going for Snufkin for once lol. He did get sick too, but it's not the main story :3  
> What could Moomin be dreaming about? I wonder... Maybe something like the prompt says :3c


End file.
